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Photo: Courtesy of Action! PR

The Brazilian Gentleman Celebrate Shoegaze on “Armageddon” (premiere)

The Brazilian Gentleman's "Armageddon" is a psychedelic part of a concept album about beloved New Jersey shoegaze collective All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors.

The Brazilian Gentleman will release L & L on 22 May via Internet and Weed. The group is the highly experimental collective featuring Alap Momin (Dälek, MRC Riddims), Christian Alexander (Hex Inverter, End Christian, C Trip A), and members of the beloved late ’90s Americana shoegaze group All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors, including Brian Doherty, Joshua Booth (also Dälek) and Merc Anthony (also Merc Yes, MRC Riddims).

L & Lis not only a testament to the power of collaboration but also serves as a concept piece about All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors, the beloved New Jersey band whose 1998 effort Turning Into Small has long been heralded as one of the quintessential shoegaze albums. Christian Alexander points out that listeners should both expect the unexpected and embrace it.

“The L & Lrecord is a celebration in the form of collaboration,” he notes. “This record is a concept album about the mighty All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors band. It’s about friends, old and new, coming together. It’s all about the love of music. We’re not trying to be anything but musical. We’re trying to pull from all kinds of music from Frank Ocean to Simon & Garfunkel. Some of the stuff in your parents’ record collection wasn’t all that bad. The kids are listening to cooler shit now than most. I want to get into all of it. Tough guys need not apply, you’re boring.”

“Armageddon” spotlights the eclecticism as well as the Brazilian Gentleman’s inimitable sense of melody, playfulness, and deep musicality. You don’t need to have a sense of humor to appreciate the music, but it helps so that you can entirely lose yourself in the waves of musical pastiche that ultimately create something delicious and new.

Merc Anthony, who created the video, says, “We’ve reached Armageddon and chaos has enveloped everything. Christian has retreated to the water and is swimming for his life. The band is oblivious and continues to play. Our hero swims straight into the turmoil, and the water around him grows darker and more turbulent as he moves on. He manages to endure, and when the calm finally returns, he finds himself in a state of uncertain peace, as a mermaid.”

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